LeGrande, a 14-year-old from suburban Kansas City who has a rare blood disorder that keeps him from spending much time in crowd and who is waiting for a bone marrow donor for a match, plays a pretty good game, too.

During the visit Friday, Cook and LeGrande played NHL Hockey, and not just a scrimmage, either. They went at it in LeGrande’s room with Blevins and Doolittle watching, and Cook scored a late goal to force overtime.

It was just about six weeks ago that Ryan Cook learned from a friend about a new entry in the field of technology-driven medicine, a telerobotic machine that can follow a user’s movement.

When he heard that there was a plan in a fledging state to have a patient throw out a first pitch remotely using the system, Cook went to the A’s to get in on the ground floor. And Wednesday night, 13-year-old Nick LeGrande threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the A’s-Yankees game from 1,800 miles away.

Cook caught the pitch, and said after the A’s 5-2 win over the Yankees “it was the coolest thing I’ve ever done.’’